The Lake Highlands Home Tour is coming up on Saturday, and as a veteran of home tours, I can tell you this one is a must not miss. Here is a sneak peek at a storybook cottage you’ll never forget.
Emily Hewett has been an interior designer for 17 years. As the owner of A Well-Dressed Home, she knows full well what a home tour entails because she’s helped plenty of clients prep for them. So, hats off to Hewett, as she still volunteered to be on the tour!
The Hewett’s home was built in Lakewood in the 1940s and moved to 7915 Forest Trail in Lake Highlands sometime in the 1970s. For someone to make that sort of effort to save a home makes us love it even more.
Hewett saw the house online when her family was thinking about moving, and knew it had potential. “I knew I could remodel it, and add to the original charm and character.”
After looking at it for several months, one of her co-workers also spotted it online and encouraged her to buy it. She did and then spent four years turning this home into the quintessential storybook cottage.
“The master bedroom was upstairs, and the guest room was down, with an unused storage garage connected to it,” Hewett said. “So there was plenty of room to change that area into a master suite. And, of course, while we were doing that, we decided we might as well do the kitchen. The ceiling had the original framing when we bought the house. We added the beams and put in new cabinets and countertops.”
The Hewett’s have 7-year-old twins and two sizable dogs.
“People ask us all the time about the light-colored fabrics in the house, Hewett said. “I used indestructible fabrics! Everything is kid and dog-friendly.”
In addition to the significant downstairs remodeling, Hewett updated the kid’s rooms, playroom, and bathrooms on the second floor.
The updates to this storybook cottage were not exclusive to the interior. “There was an unused sunroom on the back of the house,” Hewett said. “We refer to it as the cabana now.” A pool and outdoor fireplace completed Hewett’s vision.
Hewett created booklets of before photos for people to see as they walk through her storybook cottage on the Lake Highlands Home Tour. Take note of the pool area. “It’s a super dramatic before and after,” she said.
If you want to see more on the transformation of this home into a storybook cottage after the Lake Highlands Home Tour, follow Emily on Instagram at #casadehewett. It’s a treasure trove of beautiful photos and inspiration.
The Lake Highlands Home Tour benefits the Lake Highlands Area Early Childhood PTA. You can purchase tickets here. Want to win a pair of tickets? Stay tuned to Daltxrealestate.com where we will be giving them away!
Karen Eubank is the owner of Eubank Staging and Design. She has been an award-winning professional home stager and writer for over 25 years. Karen teaches the popular Staging to Sell class and is the creator of the online course, The Beginners Guide to Buying Wholesale. Her love of dogs, international travel, history, white paint, champagne, artificial turf, and Tudor and Midcentury Modern homes, and any house designed by Clifford Hutsell knows no bounds. Her father was a spy, so she keeps secrets very well! Find Karen at www.eubankstaging.com
